The sex scandal that forced CIA director and retired Army Gen. David Petraeus to resign, and ensnared the top U.S. general in Afghanistan, has thrust former Quincy student and four-star Marine Corps Gen. Joseph Dunford Jr. into the spotlight, too – in a good way, The Patriot Ledger reported.

In a quick response to Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, the Senate Armed Services Committee said Tuesday that Dunford’s confirmation hearing to take command in Afghanistan will be held Thursday as scheduled.

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Revelations of the FBI investigation of Petraeus and Marine Corps Gen. John Allen prompted Panetta to ask the Senate to go ahead with Dunford’s hearing as soon as possible, and postpone Allen’s nomination to be supreme allied commander in Europe.

Dunford, 57, was nominated by President Barack Obama in October to succeed Allen as commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan. He is expected to take command of the ISAF, the International Security Assistance Force, in February. But now he might be in Afghanistan sooner.

On Tuesday, international security studies professor William Martel at Tufts University’s Fletcher School agreed, saying Dunford is very capable and “very respected” at the Pentagon and on Capitol Hill, and by the Obama administration.

As ISAF commander, Dunford would guide U.S. and Afghan forces through the transition on which the Afghan government’s future hangs – further Afghan army combat training while U.S. troops begin maneuvering from fewer bases.

Martel said Dunford is exactly the kind of commander the U.S. needs to oversee that winding down of the 11-year conflict.

“What we need in Afghanistan now is steady-as-she-goes leadership, and that’s what Dunford would bring,” he said.

But Martel said that even for Dunford, “Afghanistan is a steep challenge. We’ve got a mess of a problem there now.”

Dunford, whose parents still live in Quincy, is now the Marine Corps assistant commandant, the service’s second-highest position.

Petraeus – the Afghanistan commander before Allen – resigned as CIA director last Friday when an FBI investigation brought to light his affair with Paula Broadwell, the author of an admiring biography of Petraeus.

Allen’s supreme commander nomination has been put on hold by the FBI’s collateral discovery of hundreds of emails between Allen and Jill Kelley, who has been described as a family friend of Allen’s and not romantically involved.

The FBI learned of those emails from harassing messages that Broadwell sent to Kelley.Dunford’s family moved from South Boston to Quincy when he was 12. He attended St. Ann’s Catholic School in Quincy and Boston College High. His parents, Joseph and Katherine Dunford, live in Quincy’s Merrymount neighborhood.

Dunford led a combat regiment in the initial stages of the 2003 Iraq invasion. He also served as commanding general of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force and commander of Marine Forces Central Command before he was appointed the Marines’ second-in-command in 2010.